Wimpole Village (1987)
A gentle little series of stories starring the inhabitants of Wimpole Village, a friendly bunch, always looking out for each other. All the Wimpole Village characters had names akin to their employment. Hence we had Dennis Letterleaver (postman) and his dog Stamp, Horace Hayseeder (farmer), Ted Dripping (butcher), PC Crooknabber (policeman) with his dog Bill etc. The Wimpole menfolk all looked rather similar with white hair, big seagull-wing moustaches and little round glasses... Stories included the unfortunate visit of Nigel Notetaker, a Big Town writer keen to report on the village for his magazine. Then there was the adventure on the beach, when the Breadsnapper Twins were almost washed away onto the rocks, or the day Major Stickwielder was called upon to act as ringmaster in Cyril Sideshow's circus. Each episode featured two stories back-to-back, with end credits after the second story... 'Wimpole Villagers ' PC Crooknabber Mayor Chambers Major Stickwielder Dennis Letterleaver Horace Hayseeder The Breadsnapper Twins Father Away Hilda Halfpint Ethel Doughkneader Captain Mainmast Ernie Porterline Ted Dripping Cyril Sideshow Wimpole Village was originally animated by Videola Ltd, using simple 'animatic' techniques. Artwork was panned over to create movement,or cut-outs married on to backgrounds giving the illusion of action. It was a technique used regularly in the advertising industry at the time for creating test commercials. Regular Wimpole Village viewers will se the repetitive use of shots to save further costs, like the action of Captain Mainmast 'hurrying' up and down his lighthouse... Narrator 'Timbo' is in fact Tim Lloyd, a radio dj and presenter who still broadcasts regularly today... True Blue Wimpole-ites should track down the Wimpole Village books from Studio Publications, written and illustrated by creator Peter Kingston. Interesting to see the differences between books and series. For example, postman Dennis Letterleaver is depicted as a typical wing-moustached Wimpole in the books, but in the series he is much younger, without a moustache or glasses... The rights to Wimpole Village have recently been acquired by Cameron Thomson Entertainment who are now licensing the series to terrestrial television and cable operators in North America and Europe - which means Dennis, Horace, Ted and the gang should be back on our screens in the very near future. What's more the company is rather keen to exploit the tie-in possibilities too. Imagine, you could soon be holding a Wimpole in your hand as well as your heart!... As anyone from Cambridgeshire can tell you, there is a very real English village of Wimpole out there. Is the series connected in any way? - possibly not, because Toonhound visitor Graham Westrope recently passed on some intrigiung info: "...Years ago I recall a fellow primary school kid who, in assembly, brought his dad in, who happened to be the creator of Wimpole Village. In fact the kid (can't remember his name unfortunately) wrote one of the books. He lived only down the road from where I live, in a house called - wait for it - Wimpole House. It still has that name today..." And that particular property stands in Essex, which rather deflates that first association of mine. But regardless of the series origins I can still leave you with a perplexing question. If Wimpole is supposed to be a village - real or imagined - why do the series logo and opening credits only feature one single house by a woody copse...?